New York City, December 1972
Musician, painter, dabbler in mathematics and chess, Catherine Velis is also a computer expert for a Big Eight accounting firm. About to head off to her new assignment in the barely twentieth century culture of Algeria, Cat meets some friends at a Fifth Avenue hotel on New Year's Eve and has her palm read by a mysterious fortune teller. The woman warns Cat of danger. Then at the same party, someone approaches Cat with an offer. A dealer in antiques, he has an anonymous client who is trying to collect the pieces of a very old chess service. Those pieces are purported to be in Algeria-and if Cat can bring them back there will be generous fees for both of them.

The South of France, Spring 1790
Mireille de Remy and her cousin Valentine are young novices at the fortress-like Montglane Abbey. With France herself aflame with the Revolution, the two girls burn to rebel against the constricted convent life that awaits them. Yet, in a way they never could have imagined, their means of escape is at hand. For buried deep within the walls and floor of the abbey are pieces of a treasure of endless fascination: the Montglane Chess Service, once owned by Charlemagne. Whoever reassembles the pieces can play the Game--a game of unlimited power. But to keep the dangerous Game a secret from those who would abuse its mystical power, the two young women must scatter the pieces throughout the world....